SPEAKING OF PEACE.........

Golda Meir once stated: “The only time we will have peace with the Arabs is when they start to love their own children more than they hate ours.” 

There are plenty of Arabs, including the mothers, who would willingly sacrifice their children’s lives in the cause of Islam. One blatant example is the case of the baby from Gaza whose life was saved in a hospital in Israel which treats  Arab children with heart problems. When he was released from hospital and his mother was asked what she would like her baby to become she replied “a Jihad warrior”! Quite a few of the suicide terrorists are mere teenagers. This is not surprising since they are brainwashed from infancy to consider it a good deed to kill Jews.

Talking of teenagers, Nachshon Wachsman was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists in 1994, after being kidnapped and held hostage for six terrible days. His mother, Esther Wachsman, who was the mother of seven sons, wrote a moving article in the Jerusalem Post in the aftermath of her son’s death.

“We yearn for peace – indeed, we pray for peace three times a day, every day of our lives. Yet terror remains a part of our lives. …When terrorists who wantonly spill innocent Jewish blood are turned into heroes and leaders of the new Palestinian entity, this is not a peace process I can continue to support. Our very language has become warped. Victims of terror are called `victims of peace`, whereas terrorists are often termed `freedom fighters` and Israel, is `occupied Palestine`. We know the names and addresses of Moslem spiritual leaders who encourage young men to go out on suicide missions.  This is their ideology. They are committing crimes against humanity and we believe that they, and their commanders and supporters, must be hunted down as zealously as we have hunted down Nazi war criminals.

Jewish blood must be seen to have value. Is it conceivable that in our own independent Jewish state we should still be hostage to our enemies’ lust for Jewish blood?

It is inconceivable that we should sit and talk peace with a partner who has not even, to date, revoked the Palestinian Covenant, which calls for the destruction of our people.

While peace is our ultimate goal, it cannot be a one-sided race toward national suicide. You don’t sit and discuss peace while bombs are exploding over your head.

One of my sons will never reach adulthood. Will the others share my dream of living as proud, strong, free and believing Jews, safe in their land?

I can say sincerely and unequivocally that despite our own personal pain and anguish, we shall never give up hope. Our people have overcome unspeakable horrors. Through our deep faith in our right to live in this God-given land, we shall overcome this black period in our history as well”.

In complete contradiction to the precepts of the Koran, the overriding principal of our Torah is reverence for life, and our idealism must be channeled towards the preservation of life. 

According to an important midrash (biblical interpretation), peace even takes priority over truth in human affairs.  In a dispute between two litigants, it is of paramount importance that each of the litigants leave the court with some measure of victory, so that friendliness in their relationship may overcome the bitterness of their initial enmity. This must require some degree of compromise on both sides; each must subordinate his truth – and even the objective religio-legal truth – to the necessities of peace.